


Sweeter Than Sugar

by credencesgrxves



Category: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (Movies)
Genre: Baking, Domestic Fluff, Fluff, M/M, also accurate stutters for life, and has cookbooks, but as an autistic person i've always seen him as autistic so thats how i write him, im a bit insecure about writing newt, many MANY cookbooks, percy likes baking and is nice to his aurors, repeating words and filler words
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-11
Updated: 2017-12-11
Packaged: 2019-02-13 15:33:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,668
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12987072
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/credencesgrxves/pseuds/credencesgrxves
Summary: Newt attempts to bake Percival a surprise for all of the things he's done for him, but gets stuck on the fact that, no, he actually can't cook. Percival comes home to an adorable Newt asking him for help in the kitchen, and can't help but agree.





	Sweeter Than Sugar

Newt had honestly wanted to surprise Percy, to do him a favour for, well, letting him squat on his property with no rent or other form of repayment. Ever since they had found Percival within the cigarette case that Grindelwald had carried on his person at all times, he was fearful; suspicious of damn near everything and flinched away at the slightest touch. It had taken a long time, a lot of healing and therapy in multiple forms, but he was getting better. He no longer flinched at the smallest touch, he eased on his suspicions (well, eased up as much as the Director of Magical Security could), and sought out company more often.

 

And now, Newt had found himself in the man’s kitchen, wondering just why he had decided to cook the man something of all things. He was _useless_ at cooking, for Merlin’s sake! But, truly, he didn’t know what else to do; Percival was a notoriously private man, even with Newt himself, despite with them now living in the same house, and Newt didn’t know what he liked or found interesting. He _did_ know, however, that the man preferred strong, neat alcohol, smoked very rarely when he was extremely stressed, and loved reading anything to do with magical law, or history of law. But that’s where his knowledge stopped.

 

He was about to consult Percival’s bookshelves to see if the man had anything remotely resembling a cookbook, (unlikely, but hey, he was desperate now), when the front door opened and closed, and the man in question walked into the room. Looking down sheepishly, Newt knew exactly what this looked like. Him, snooping in on what Percy liked to read, all while having made himself perfectly comfortable in the man’s own clothes, the heavy grey coat hanging on his shoulders feeling like it weighed a ton. He would’ve worn his own, but Beatrice the nundu had decided it made a lovely pillow to nap on, and while he loved his creatures, he wasn’t going to attempt to argue the point.

 

“P-Percival! This isn’t – this isn’t what it looks like, I swear!”

 

“And, pray tell, what do you think it looks like? To me, it seems you’ve stolen my precious coat, and I shall never recover from such a breach in trust!” Upon seeing Newt’s face, Percy hastened to add, “I’m not being serious, I honestly don’t mind, I’m just wondering where your coat is and why you just didn’t cast a heating charm.”

 

At this, Newt flushed, feeling foolish all of a sudden. “I… honestly forgot about heating charms, and Beatrice my- my nundu that is, decided my coat was a lovely bed and even I’m not stupid enough to argue against a grumpy nundu.”

 

Percival simply shook his head and chuckled. “Only you, Newt. Only you would lose your coat to a nundu because it wanted to take a nap on it of all things.” Percival then caught a glimpse of the kitchen and turned towards Newt inquisitively. “Are you cooking something?”

 

Newt winced, knowing his surprise was ruined. “Well I was- I was going to cook you something as a thank you, I guess? But, uh, I really can’t cook, at all, and I was just looking for something to help, but then I realised you wouldn’t have any cookbooks, and yeah,” Newt looked down, feeling his cheeks heat in embarrassment.

 

“Now why wouldn’t I have cookbooks?” Percival asked amusedly, “I am human, and I do need to eat on the regular. You’re just not looking in the right place, they’re on the top shelf.”

 

“Oh… Well since – since you’re here can you help me? I know it was supposed to be a surprise for you, but I don’t want to burn your apartment down or anything…” Newt knew he was pushing it a bit, asking Percival to help make his own damn surprise, but he was being completely honest when he said he was downright useless at cooking. He was lucky to be staying with Percival now, as the man usually brought food home for him, and with Tina and Queenie before as they had always forced him to have at least one hot meal a day.

 

“Sure, but there’s one condition,” Percival said a falsely sweet smile on his face, “stop it with this Mr. Graves nonsense, hm? I feel like I’m living with Tina or Abernathy, not the Newt I’ve come to know.”

 

“I- okay Percival, now pleaaaaase help me?”

 

“Yeah, just head back into the kitchen and I’ll join you. What did you want to cook?” Percy asked as he perused the several cookbooks he had on his bookcase, some were gifts from family members and others were ones that he had picked up himself out of sheer boredom in the past and hung onto.

 

“Uh, gingerbread maybe? Do you… like gingerbread is what I meant to say…” Newt mumbled, trailing off, suddenly aware that he’d just answered Percival’s question with one of his own, and wasn’t that considered rude? Newt wasn’t too sure anymore, he’d always found it hard keeping up with social rules.

 

“Yeah, that sounds good, can you get the ingredients out? They should all be in the cupboard nearest the door and the eggs are in the fridge.” Percival walked into the kitchen and organised the ingredients Newt had set out, before gathering the scales and setting about measuring things out. Little did his aurors know (or anyone for that matter), Percival absolutely loved baking. It had started as a boredom hobby and had stuck, and he often anonymously left treats for his aurors on hard days.

 

Newt seemed content to stand by and watch, his eyes fixated on Percival’s forearms as he rolled his shirtsleeves out of the way and began hand mixing the dry ingredients together. Looking up, Newt caught Percival’s bemused gaze and quirked eyebrow, and realising he had been caught, hurried in cracking the eggs into a separate jug and began lightly beating them.

 

Soon enough, Percival reached over for the eggs and mixed them into the dry ingredients, quickly whipping up a thick brown dough which he, much to Newt’s slightly annoyed surprise, began to eat.

 

“Percyyyyyyy, we’re supposed to be baking this gingerbread, not eating it!” Newt knew he was whining, but really, at this rate half of the dough would be gone before it even reached the oven. Percival simply smiled winningly back at him, before turning back to the bowl to continue shaping the dough.

 

“I know Newt, but you can’t really blame me,” Percival purred, his smile now a wicked smirk, “I’ve always loved the taste of ginger.” At this, Percy swiped up a small amount of golden-brown dough onto his index finger, before looking Newt directly in the eye and licking it off, giving out an almost obscene groan at the (admittedly good) taste.

 

Newt flushed, resolutely turning away and looking at the floor, before busying his hands with sorting out the various ingredients littering the kitchen counter after the prep for the dough. Except, he managed to drop the bag of flour, sending a white cloud pluming over the counter and onto the floor and in the air, making them both cough and cover their mouths. Of course. He was always so clumsy and had to mess things up again. Newt raised his wand in order to spell away the mess, but Percival beat him to it, the flour that had gone on the counter and in the air rushing back into the bag, and the flour on the floor vanishing into thin air.

 

“Oh, thank- thank you Percival, sorry about that, I’ve, I’ve always been a tad clumsy…”

 

“That’s nothing Newt, honestly. Some of the things I’ve seen on the field from a certain few aurors are much, _much_ worse, so don’t dwell on it. Also, you called me Percy.” At that declaration, Percy seemed inordinately happy, and upon seeing this, Newt grinned in response.

 

“Now, let’s see what we can do for shaping these, yeah? You thinking traditional gingerbread men, or a different shape?”

 

“Hmmmmm, stars? Or hearts? Dear, I can’t decide…” Newt trailed off, considering the options he had come up with. However, Percy simply plowed on ahead in flattening the dough, before separating the sheet into two squares.

 

“How about both, we have more than enough dough after all.”

 

“Well, not if you keep eating it!” Newt joked, before squeaking in surprise as Percy dabbed a bit of dough on the corner of his mouth before licking it off. His cheeks flushed a furious red as he stared at the other man, his mouth gaping slightly as he attempted to construct a coherent response.

 

“Mmmmmm, absolutely delicious. Gingerbread does taste better with someone you love, don’t you agree?” Percival hummed and closed his eyes, before opening them and looking Newt in the eye.

 

“L-love?! What- what on earth do you mean Percival?” Newt felt his heart jump into his throat with hope, did Percy actually like him back?

 

“I said what I meant Newt, I do love you, and have since you’ve moved in.” Percival leaned up slightly, stretching up on his tiptoes in order to reach Newt’s lovely pink lips to capture them in a proper kiss, swallowing the gasp the other let out.

 

“I- I love you too, Percy… I kind of have since I came to New York really, everything that Tina had told me about you just endeared you more to me really…” Newt smiled radiantly, his heart beating quickly in his chest. Percy _did_ love him back!

 

“Hm. Perhaps a certain Miss. Goldstein deserves a certain treat, or perhaps a new desk, or writing set…”

 

Newt giggled, feeling very light-hearted all of a sudden, he could feel warmth suffusing his limbs. Nothing sexual, but a pervasive and comforting warmth that one experiences when stood in gentle sunlight, or when having a warm drink after coming in from a cold day. Newt wanted it to last forever.


End file.
